Rev4
by minmb82
Summary: Rev4


**Chapter 4**

_Daira, 29 Kiraa , 4405, Faey Orthodox Calendar_

_ Wednesday, 14 August 2019 Terran Standard Calendar_

_ Daira, 29 Kiraa, year 1330 of the 97__th__ Generation, Karinne Historical Reference Calendar_

_KMS _Brian Fox_, orbiting X2139-Y2388-Z8399-à0003, Galaxy A1C (Ilviros)_

Jason felt that coming all the way out here just to do some fighter training missions was a bit silly, but he wasn't complaining _too_ much.

He didn't get to do things like this anywhere near as much as he wanted. He was in full armor, standing in front of a missile rack looking out of the open doors of the launch bay along with Aura and Commander Dedre Karinne, commander of the Rebels. He'd just completed the last of his certification flights with the Rebels, doing a recon mission of a terrestrial planet in this system. It was the third mission he'd run that day, with the first two being a combat simulation and a deep space navigation mission, testing his ability to navigate without beacons. The recon mission was surprisingly fun, since they went down into the atmosphere of a terrestrial—but not life-sustaining—planet and scanned using external sensor pods. The planet was like a less hellish version of Venus, with ambient air temperatures averaging around 300 shuki (around 140 degrees Celsius), with a pressure of 41.7 (enough to instantly kill most life) and a barren surface pockmarked and scarred by lava flows. The planet was young, barely half a billion years old, and was still extremely volcanic. The rampant volcanic activity had raised the atmosphere's temperature above water's boiling point, an atmosphere laden with carbon dioxide. The planet was much like how Terra was at that age before life began, a burning rock that was slowly cooling. The heavy percentage of water in the atmosphere would convert to liquid when it cooled enough, and then it would rain on that planet for _millions_ of years, cooling it down and forming oceans. The scans they ran was for the geology department, getting them some great data about the composition of a young planet's crust and atmosphere.

He ran that mission PIM, which was decidedly odd to him.

_It looks almost beautiful from this distance,_ Aura noted as they regarded the young planet, red lines marking kathra-wide lava flows on the surface, which were visible from orbit. She had her helmet held against her side with the crook of her arm, and her other hand was on her hip. She'd cut her hair very short, probably to make it easier to get her helmet off an on. For a fighter pilot, that could be an issue if they were scrambled. She didn't want to waste precious time stuffing her hair up into her helmet so she could put it on.

_Not so much fun from up close,_ Dedre chuckled audibly. _The particulates in the clouds are worse than tar. I don't think I want to be anywhere near my ship when the ground crew cleans off the hull.._

_ Truth, my fighter looks like it has paint primer on it,_ Jason agreed, glancing back at his fighter. Its usual smooth, glossy black hull was dull from the glue-like particles mixed with volcanic ash that stuck to it while they were in the atmosphere. It had the chance to do so because they weren't running with their IP armor systems on, so the energy charge on the hull didn't repel the particulates, or burn them off when they stuck to the hull. It was a simple matter to clean the hull, there was a way to do it using the IP emitters, but he'd bet that the smell would be _awful_ when they did it. _Still, I enjoyed the mission. I don't get the chance to come out here very often._

_ I still have to remind myself that they're being serious when they say we're deploying to another galaxy,_ Dedre mused. _And I must say, your Grace, you're still a very good fighter pilot. When are you going to give over on those silly exomechs and join a fighter squadron?_

_ Sorry, Dedre, I'm a rigger at heart,_ he smiled over at him. _I keep my combat status active on fighters so I know what it's like for the people I'm ordering into combat, and so I can be ready to defend Karis in any way needed of me. Besides, I'm a _much_ better rigger than I am a fighter pilot. We all must follow our calling. I'm nowhere near good enough to be Rebel, but I _am_ good enough to be a Storm Rider,_ he sent proudly. _I'll leave being a fighter jockey to those best suited for it_, he added, putting a fond hand on Aura's shoulder.

_I've seen your scores, Lieutenant, and I think you'll be a great fighter pilot, _Dedre told her.

_I hope so, Commander. I'm surely going to try my best._

_ [Secure all fighters,]_ came an order of the ship's local biogenic network…which was now encrypted. Jason couldn't understand it without a gestalt, the program to decrypt it was installed in it. It caused him a few issues where he had to ignore the commune from the ship and listen only to his gestalt, which wasn't easy. _[Jump operations commencing in twenty minutes.]_

_ Going home already?_ Jason sent back to the bridge, where Lelara Karinne was commanding. Much like Ravai and Kirai, Lelara was one of a set of twins, but her twin didn't command another carrier. Enara Karinne commanded the battleship _Podaki_.

_Actually, no, we're jumping to Sigma Proxima Ascending,_ she replied. _We're going to do one more survey mission before heading back. Feel like one more run, Jason?_

_ You know it, it keeps me from pacing the office and worrying,_ he replied. At that very moment, the Board was meeting over on E Chaio, and he was being serious that running missions with the Rebels was keeping him from going crazy worrying about what was happening. There was nothing he could do about it, Kraal would give him a detailed report when he got back, so he was staying out of the office today.

_Orders in, we're doing one more survey mission,_ Dedre sent to his squadron, including Jason. _We're going to treat it like a combat launch immediately on drop back to normal space. So I want everyone in their fighter and ready to bounce! Ground crews, get those fighters in combat condition before we drop into normal space!_

And just like that, Jason was put on "combat" alert. He joined the other Rebels in getting into the armored box cockpit of his fighter, and as the ground crews got the hulls cleaned off by charging the IP emitters, he called up the orders sent down to his fighter by the TCC, Tactical Command Center. It was a command and control center just off the bridge that managed fighter operations, and it was from them that his squadron's orders were sent. Survey mission of a terrestrial system in Sigma Proxima Ascending, atmospheric insertion, running the external sensor pods already installed on the wings of his Wolf. This run was a bio-scan for the biology department, not a mineral and composition scan for the geology department. The mission itself was routine, maybe even a bit boring, but Dedre was going to make them launch for the mission like it was a hot jump-in, where they'd launch as soon as they were back in normal space, and that made it a combat training exercise.

There was a reason Dedre had them all mounted up and merged before they even jumped out of Ilviros, and it was a good reason. Just like exomechs, fighter pilots performed best when they were fully "settled in" to the merge with their fighter, so what Dedre was doing was making sure that all his pilots had a 100% merge before they started the mission. It was one hour, 37 minutes to their destination, and Jason would spend that entire time merged to his fighter and waiting to begin the mission. Hurry up and wait, a mainstay of military service no matter what branch it was. Jason, however, had more options than to just sit in his fighter and wait. He spent that time discussing what was going on over on E Chaio with Kraal and Maraa, which was mainly just speculation. Kraal couldn't get a listening device into the Boardroom, not with the new wave of security features installed since the assassination of the prior Board, so all they could do was wait for the meeting to end and have Kraal's operative within the building report in. Kraal had two infiltrators and four paid Benga informants in the building, and one of them was in the office that handled the paperwork of the Board. He would find out what happened in the meeting as soon as it was over, when the main executive in charge of communications and records came into the office and told them what to do. When the Board made a decision, it was that office that sent down the official orders to have that decision carried out, so it was the perfect place for a Kimdori to gather information.

But still, there was nothing he could do but talk, though he could do it with those who know what was going on. They kept him distracted enough that he had to get back to reality, when they were ten minutes from their destination, as the ship began to slow in mode three in preparation for returning to normal space. That was much safer now that it had been just a month ago, thanks to Cybi and the other CBIMs creating a new navigation algorithm that was able to calculate the ship's exit vector much more precisely while operating in mode three. The margin of error for the ship had been reduced to just .15 light years, which meant that ships could now jump in at the edge of a star system and then enter it in either mode one or mode two, whichever would get them to their destination planet faster. However, since this was an uncharted system, they would be coming in using mode one because they had insufficient navigation data to plot a jump into the interior of the system. Under mode one, getting to the destination would take about 16 minutes..

The ships could go much faster than that, but it wasn't safe to go that fast inside a star system. All it would take was one very large uncharted asteroid being in their path to destroy the ship, kill the crew, and probably do drastic damage to any celestial body within 2 billion kathra from the shockwave of the explosion. Within an uncharted system, there was a hard speed limit of 5 light years per hour, which gave their long range sensors sufficient time to scan their vector for hidden dangers, and gave them enough time to navigate around them if any were found. Granted, a ship as big as a carrier had sufficient phantom mass to push about anything but a planetoid out of its way, but that was no reason to be reckless. There were no doubt quite a few uncharted planetoids in their destination system. So, after dropping out of mode three, the ship almost immediately turned towards the system's star and entered mode one, cruising in at FTL speed. Jason accessed the long range sensors and observed the incoming telemetry, just for something to do. The system had ten planets, two terrestrial planets and eight gas giants, but none of them were particularly interesting. One of the terrestrial planets was a barren rock with no atmosphere, like Mercury, but the second was in the "goldilocks" zone for life-sustaining planets for this star, an orange star about half the size of Terra's sun. KES probes had detected oxygen in the atmosphere, and that was usually a strong indicator that there was life on the planet. They were the first Karinne ship in the system, so they would be conducting the initial system mapping and initial scans of the system. That was what the _Brian Fox's_ sensors were doing right now, taking scans of the planets in the system and searching for anything unusual.

_[Hold on launch,]_ Dedre ordered over squadron tactical. _[Ship sensors are detecting coherent energy emissions at destination system.]_ That was an indication of possible intelligent life. _[Everyone remain on standby, be ready for a combat scramble if we come under attack.]_

_ [Do we jettison our sensor pods, skipper?]_ someone asked.

_[No, keep them unless it's a combat scramble. It takes the ground crews a while to reattach them if we dump them.]_

_[I'll delink and stand down,]_ Jason called.

_[You will _not_, K1,]_ Dedre ordered. _[You will stand by for orders.]_

_ [You want me to PIM a combat sortie? Aya will _murder_ you, Dedre.]_

_ [I'm not taking you out there if it's a combat sortie. But you're not standing down until I'm sure it's not. That way you're in position and ready to launch if we continue on with the survey mission.]_

_ [Roger,]_ Jason said, mildly amused. Aya was on the ship along with Dera and Suri, and no doubt she was charging down here at that very moment to drag Dedre out of his fighter and beat him to death with his own liver.

He was certain that it was an advanced civilization as they got closer, because the energy patterns they were picking up were roughly identical to the kind of ion power that the Keelo used before upgrading to Confederation plasma. That meant that it was a fairly advanced civilization, definitely with space travel capability, and might have some advanced weaponry to boot. That meant that the parameters of the mission would change, and Lelara followed the procedures for approaching an unknown spacefaring civilization. They dropped out of mode one nearly 8,000,000 kathra from the planet, then they turned all their sensor arrays towards it so they could get more detailed information. The ship also turned to orient itself outbound and the jump engines were put on standby, so Lelara could jump out of the system in literally two seconds if an unknown ship or vessel approached. Jason looked over the sensor data, the same data the sensor officers were studying at the same time, and saw that the energy patterns were very complex. They were also registering several large metallic masses in orbit around the planet, which were either ships or orbital stations. The ship launched a hyperspace probe towards the planet, which would get them a much more detailed scan of the area.

They weren't going to stay. There were three ships moving towards them at FTL speed, two from the planet in front of them and one from the gas giant in an orbital track close to their location but currently about a quarter of the way around the star from them. The _Brian Fox_ had been detected, and the alien race was sending ships out to intercept.

_[We're not risking the Grand Duke in a first contact situation,]_ Lelara called over the ship's biogenic network. _[All hands secure for hyperspace jump.]_

He almost told her to belay that, but the thought of Aya murdering _him_ crept into his mind.

The ship jumped out of the system in mode two, but it didn't go far. They jumped for only about half a second, which was enough to propel them outside the system, into interstellar space one system beyond their target system, in interstellar space nearly equally distant between three stars.. That too was standard procedure. The ship didn't enter mode three in scanning range of unknown civilizations unless it was an emergency, to conceal the fact that the ship had intergalactic capability. _[Mission complete, all hands prepare for mode three jump back to base.]_

_ [That's that. All Rebels, stand down and return to normal duty rotation. K1, you passed, so your flight logs will be uploaded to command so they can renew your certification.]_

_[Thanks, but I'm not done here yet. I'm curious now.]_

_ [What do you mean?]_

_ [I mean, I'm not going anywhere, and neither is this ship.]_

Dedre found out what he meant quickly. The _Brian Fox_ was ordered to hold inside the galaxy—actually, just off the galactic rim—and a response force of KMS vessels was sent out to rendezvous with the carrier, as well as a KES scout ship. The scout ship had a first contact specialist aboard, along with one of Jason's bionoids, and the KMS ships would hold at the carrier's location to be nearby in case the scout ship ran into trouble. This was their first contact with a spacefaring civilization in this galaxy, so they were going to be exceedingly careful.

About three hours later, Jason was merged to his bionoid, standing beside Kaimo Stormblossom, a Shio first contact specialist from Yeri's diplomat corps that was attached to the KES. She was tall, willowy, and just as beautiful as any Faey woman, with dark hair with greenish undertones and vibrant light aqua colored eyes that were quite striking compared to her dark hair and green skin. Much like Lyra's and Palla's eyes just jumped out the onlooker, Kaimo's eyes did the same. They were studying the hyperspace probe data as they cruised back into the galaxy in mode two, and it painted a picture Jason expected. The civilization had extremely efficient FTL engines, with their sensors picking up some ships moving to or from the system at a very respectable 4.128 light years per hour. That would allow one of their ships to travel from Terra to its closest stellar neighbor, Proxima Centauri, in a little over an hour. That was a very, very advanced application of FTL technology, even better than the Hrathari's translight tech. With FTL engines that fast, it looked like they'd never bothered to develop hyperspace jump technology…or they did and simply never employed it. They used saturated ion flux technology for power, which was about as powerful as ion tech could get, which gave them enough energy to power some pretty strong weapons and shields. They were using tachyon burst for system to system communication, but within the system, they were using both EM modulation and a rather innovative form of tunneling photon carrier modulation, which allowed a photon to "tunnel" through the fabric of space/time using a trick of relativity and arrive at a destination at nearly three times the speed of light…EM for planet-only comm, photon for communicating with off-planet locations within the system.

The probe had done a sweep of the surrounding systems, and it had found four more systems within 30 light years that also held advanced life using the same type of technology, hinting that they were all part of the same civilization.

So, it was a fairly advanced multi-system civilization, but not up to Confederation technology.

"Done any of these outside the galaxy?" Jason asked Kaimo as she tied back her dark hair into a tail.

"Two," she replied. "One was a civilization in galaxy A2B-3, a single system civilization about equal in tech to the Pai and Muri, and one in galaxy A2C-6 that was nearly as advanced as the Confederation. We did the standard contact protocols with both. Told them we were conducting exploration and scientific research very far from our home territory, and asked them which direction we could go that wouldn't cause us to trespass into their claimed space."

"You're just a veteran now," he chuckled.

"You keep us busy, your Grace," she smiled. That was the truth. The KES had made contact with 114 spacefaring civilizations so far during their exploration of the galaxies in the cluster, but those contacts were about the equivalent of "hi, how you doing, don't mind us we're just passing through." They'd made no agreements with any of them, basically just making contact, ensuring them they weren't hostile, and asking which direction they could go that wouldn't bring them into another empire's claimed space. The need to conceal the fact that they were from another galaxy prevented an exchange of information, so they had to be a little more careful than they would if they were contacting a new civilization within their own galaxy. Despite that, they were still making contact, because it was a good thing to be on good speaking terms with one's neighbors.

Kaimo, like Seido, reminded him that it wasn't just the Faey that had some top tier telepaths. Kaimo was easily as powerful as any Imperium mindbender, maybe as powerful as an Imperial Guard. She preferred to use her talent as a diplomat and first contact specialist, when she had the power to do virtually anything she wanted when it came to occupations that relied on telepathy. She was in the diplomatic corps of the State Department, but when the translight drives went public within the house, the allure of going out on missions in the KES caused her to join the new office in the State department that permanently attached first contact specialists to the KES. Kaimo was in both the State Department and the KES, she had military rank within the KES and she was fully trained like any KES officer, but she was still considered a member of Yeri's diplomatic corps. She'd gone on two exo-galactic first contact missions since she finished her training and earned her Lieutenant KES rank about two months ago. Kaimo was uniquely suited for first contact missions because was a listener on top of being a powerful telepath, and she was very, very well trained. Dera had trained her to unlock her full potential as a listener, an honor that was saved only for the most promising telepaths that joined the house. The Imperial Guard trained Jason's family out of duty, but when they found a rare jewel like Kaimo, they trained them as a favor to Jason and the House. The Imperial Guard were not only some of the most powerful telepaths alive, they were beyond any doubt the most _skilled_ telepaths alive.

Kaimo earned _two_ paychecks. She got her State salary _and_ her salary as a KES Lieutenant, which Jason felt was only fair. She was in both the KES and the State department, she deserved to be paid for both roles.

She was what Jason wanted to see in his House of Karinne, and that was Faey _not_ dominating every job, role, and position. He wanted diversity both in his government and in his population, and he was privately thrilled that non-Faey were starting to really compete against Faey for positions up and down the chain of command in the KMS and the government. He didn't want his people to see nothing but Faey in positions of power, he wanted them to see as many different races as possible, so they would know that the House of Karinne was dedicated to the inclusivity that drew them to the house in the first place. The House had mostly Faey and Terrans in the highest positions of government, but that was because when the house reformed, about all there was in the house were Faey and Terrans. But now, as more and more races joined and they started to work their way up the ladder, new faces were appearing.

Not all the Faey in the house were happy about that, but that was just the smug Faey superiority mindset being sulky.

Jason was present on the bridge when the scout ship jumped back to the target system, following the standard procedure for a first contact situation. The ship jumped in at standard jump distance and held its position, broadcasting a rhythmic tone over EM modulation that their probe told them that they used, and they simply waited for them to advance. About twenty minutes after they arrived, a squadron of ships approached, coming to a stop about 100 kathra from the scout ship. And as soon as the ten ships came to a full stop, Kaimo's eyes widened. "They're contacting us!" she told him. "They have some powerful telepaths to reach that far!"

"Then do your job, woman," he said with a smile.

She winked at him and put a finger to her temple. She was quiet for several long moments, her eyes closed and her expression neutral, then she opened her eyes and looked at the captain. The captain of this ship was a Subrian, one of the first Subrians to join the house when they made contact with the Coalition. He was a typical Subrian in that he was very tall, very burly, very handsome, very bald, and had very impressive fangs of which he was quite proud. "Captain Marikk, they're going to advance up to about five kathra, then launch a shuttle to board with us."

"Very well," he nodded. "Tell them we're going to launch a zip ship to guide them to our landing bay, but do it nice and slow. Open the forward port landing bay doors. Helm, turn the ship so they can see the docking bay, so they know where to go. Launch a zip ship."

It took just a moment. As the ships approached, the scout ship slowly turned so its port side was to the advancing squadron, its main landing bay doors opened, and a tiny zip ship flitted out and held position about a kathra from the ship. "Any sense of them, Kaimo?" Jason asked.

"I'm getting a lot of chatter," she replied. "They must have a high number of telepaths in their population, given how many I hear sending. They're sending both within the ships and between the ships."

"Okay, that's good to know. Hearing anything that might be a threat?"

"Not really. They're fully aware that our ship is far beyond them technologically, but they're not being aggressive. A few of them have suggested capturing our ship to learn its technology, but they're a small minority. They're fully aware that it was a _warship_ that initially entered the system, and they think that the carrier is nearby. They don't want to risk a fight with a technologically superior and unknown foe."

"That's only wise," Marikk said calmly as the ships came to a stop on the viewscreen. A single small craft launched from the lead ship, and it began its approach to the scout ship. "I think it's about time to move to the landing bay, Lieutenant, your Grace."

"Yes, Captain."

They moved down to the bay, just in time to see the zip ship and alien shuttle enter. The shuttle was small, sleek and tapered, almost ovoid, with no wings and a flat bottom. It had two small windows in the front, like the windscreens on an old-fashioned jet plane, and a small, tapered tail on the stern with a single vertical fin. It didn't extend landing skids, it landed directly on the deck, which explained to him why the bottom of it was flat. The zip ship returned to its parking space and landed as Marikk, Kaimo, and Jason approached the shuttle, whose hatch was opening.

Jason was a bit surprised when a lone figure stepped out of it. He looked so much like a Rathii that Jason nearly did a double-take. He had the same graceful bone structure and the same very long, slender ears that ended in points over the top of his head, and was just as attractive as any Rathii Jason had met.

Gora's Law strikes again.

He was wearing a military uniform, gray in color and with silver-colored metal insignia on his collar, the uniform surprisingly plain. It had no buttons, no decorations, it was just a plain gray jacket and pants with a white shirt underneath it. Kaimo stepped forward and offered her bare hand to the handsome fellow, and he took it with a calm expression. The two of them were silent for long moments, no doubt teaching each other their languages, until the ship's mainframe downloaded a new language into his bionoid. It was called Ika, as was the race, and the man was identified as Queen's Captain Salviano Jorsanimiata. "Now that my companions can understand us," Kaimo said aloud in Ika, "might I introduce Captain Marikk, commander of this vessel, and Jason Karinne, a dignitary from my government?" she said in a melodious voice.

"Have you no family name, sir?" Salviano asked curiously.

"My people don't use family names," Marikk replied as he saluted the captain. "In the most formal of situations, I would be called Marikk, son of Jelin, of Clan Hakru."

"Quite interesting," he said. "I had never conceived of a society where there are no family names." He looked at Jason. "And I must ask. Do robots have official standing in your society?"

Jason had to chuckle. "This isn't exactly a robot, Captain," he replied. "It is, but there's a living being operating it in a way that's difficult to explain. I can see and hear through the machine, and can control its movements from where I am."

"No doubt through the telepathic interface I'm sensing," he said, looking carefully at the bionoid. "I can hear it, but I can't understand what it says."

"Precisely so, Captain," Jason told him.

"Ah. Quite ingenious," he said. "But we digress. The Ika would ask why you come to our system."

"The first ship you encountered was on an exploration mission," Kaimo said smoothly. "This is completely unexplored and uncharted territory for us. Our long range sensors told us there were terrestrial planets within the system, and it is our standard procedure to explore such systems. It is also our standard procedure to immediately retreat from the system if we detect spacefaring races within the system. The ship you saw called in this ship, a diplomatic vessel, so we might make peaceful contact with your people, and so you can tell us which way we can go to continue our exploration that does not cross your territorial borders. We will honor your claimed territory and avoid it."

He was quiet a moment, and in that time, Kaimo told him what was going on. _[He's receiving instructions from someone aboard his ship,]_ she communed from her interface.

"From where do you come?" he asked. "We've explored most of this side of the galaxy, and have never encountered your people before."

"You wouldn't believe us if we told you," Jason said before Kaimo could respond.

"We've only just begun exploring this part of the galaxy," Kaimo added. "And you're the first spacefaring civilization we've encountered."

"You explore using giant warships?"

"Our exploration vessels need to be large because they're designed to operate far from a base of resupply for very long periods of time," Kaimo answered. "We understand that our ships don't look like peaceful vessels of exploration, and they give the wrong impression when we come across other races. We apologize if our ship caused your people any anxiety."

"Ah. That's understandable," he said. "But I must ask. How do you enter hyperspace safely? My people have studied hyperspace, but its effect on the mind makes it too dangerous to use as a mode of travel. Only our automated ships use hyperspace. Are your ships all manned by those robots?"

"My people, the Shio, are much more resistant to the effects of hyperspace, we can endure the effects of it for short periods of time," Kaimo explained smoothly. "As are my companions, who are known as Terrans and Subrians. But there are some races among us that are intolerant of hyperspace, as you seem to be. Only those tolerant of hyperspace man our exploration ships."

"Ah. I hadn't considered that. No race we've encountered can tolerate hyperspace for more than a moment or two."

"Our resistance isn't much more than that," Kaimo admitted. "Which is why the ship you saw is equipped with an FTL drive in addition to a hyperspace jump engine. The jump engine is used to catapult us to a new section of the galaxy to explore, which we then explore using our FTL drive."

"Clever," he said with an approving nod. "And explains why your ships are so large. Jump engines are massive."

"Precisely so, Captain," she nodded. "With your indulgence, can you show us which way we can go so we don't enter your claimed territory, or the claimed territory of your neighbors?" she asked as a hoverpod floated over, to the side of them, and projected out a hologram of a starchart with the system they were in at the center. "Our intent is the exploration of this sector _without_ causing any incidents."

"I find it surprising you don't wish an exchange of information," he said.

"Our past experience teaches us to minimize contact with civilizations far removed from our own," Jason cut in. "I know that makes us seem quite suspicious, but it's for our protection. More than once, our diplomatic ships have been attacked by other civilizations seeking to capture them to study the technology they hold, or we have been pulled into a conflict between two civilizations we have just met, so it is now our policy to completely avoid space claimed by other spacefaring races. That's why we only want to know which way we can go to avoid entering claimed space. You don't have to reveal the locations of your systems, you only need to point us in the direction we can go without crossing someone's border."

He was quiet a long moment, during which he was communicating with his ship. _[He's told them what we said, now he's waiting for them to answer,]_ Kaimo said, her thought amused. _[Turns out he's not actually the captain. He's a mid-grade officer.]_

_ [Whatever they want to do is fine with me,] _Jason replied. _[Do they seem hostile or overly suspicious?]_

_ [A little suspicious, but the officer here believes that we're not aggressive. He told his commander as much.]_

_ [Then that's all we really need.]_

After another moment, the Ika looked over at the hologram. "To answer that question, the only direction you can go is back the way you came," he said, stepping up to it. "The Ika claim the territory along this line, at least in a two dimensional sense," he said, tracing his finger in a curve with their location at the valley. "The space through which you traveled to get here is devoid of habitable systems, so it is claimed by no empire in the sector. Beyond us, here, are the Brii," he said, pointing at the top of the map. "We have peaceful relations with them. Here are the Uro Nok, an aggressive empire that threatens all who shares a border with them, including us," he finished, motioning along the bottom of the hologram.

"Thus why there were warships stationed in the system," Jason said absently, to which the captain nodded.

"Then it seems we'll be turning around and going back," Kaimo said. "Thank you, Captain. If you would, please return to your ship and inform your government of this conference, and we shall turn around and go back several dozen light years, then choose another direction to travel to continue our exploration. We apologize once more for entering your territory, and we assure you that we will not do so again. Your territorial borders shall be honored, as will be the borders of your neighbors."

"Thank you, madam diplomat."

Barely five minutes later, the Ika officer was on his way back to his ship, and the scout ship was turning around to jump back out of the system. The Ika had tried to get them to establish permanent diplomatic relations, but Kaimo danced around that rather masterfully. That was their current standard procedure. Since it would be virtually impossible to hide the fact that they were from another galaxy, they were avoiding establishing permanent diplomatic relations with any of the exo-galactic empires they encountered. Jason didn't want his ships to be hunted by every spacefaring empire in the universe when they found out that Karinne ships had intergalactic capability, and just about everyone in the upper echelon of both his government and his military agreed with his policy.

For Jason, it was quite an enjoyable little diversion, getting the chance to see how the first contact team was doing their work in this new intergalactic age, and he was quite impressed by Kaimo. Ryn had spoken very highly of her when she trained her, and she'd become a personal friend to Dera during their training sessions.

It was odd to him that Faey women and Shio women seemed to get along so well, when they were so different culturally. But then again, Shio were very charismatic people, so maybe it wasn't quite so much a surprise as he believed.

So, that bit of fun completed, Jason stowed his bionoid, delinked, and hung out with Dedre and the Rebels during the trip back to Karis. Once he got home, he headed over to his office in the White House and stood by as he waited for Kraal to contact him about what the Board was doing, catching up on two days' worth of backlogged paperwork as he did so…at least when Chichi let him. The little tabi was being quite naughty, baiting him into playing with her instead of doing boring paperwork.

Eventually, though, he both got the paperwork done and got word from Andromeda. Kraal's face appeared on a flat hologram across from his desk without warning—Kraal had authority to do that—as he was going over Myleena's latest report from Project H, which had been hand-delivered by courier not long ago. "Cousin," Kraal called, getting his attention.

"About time. Any news, cousin?" he asked, setting the handpanel on the desk.

"Very little, but what little news I have is good news," he said. "There's been no official decision about accepting the peace treaty, but they're currently debating the issue. The good news is, it looks quite favorable that they'll accept the treaty as is."

Jason breathed a sigh of relief, leaning back in his chair. "Any idea exactly when they may vote on it?"

"Perhaps late tomorrow their time, or the day after," he answered. "My contacts told me that they spent most of their first day going over financial matters before taking up the peace treaty."

"Well, that's very Benga," he drawled, which made the massive Kimdori nod knowingly. "So I came back to the office for basically no reason."

"I dare say you caught up on your paperwork, cousin. Sometimes I think Chirk must follow you around to make you do your job."

He had to laugh. "She's not that bad, but I know when I'm starting to irritate her," he grinned. "All the fun things I can do instead of sitting in this office is a temptation I can't resist sometimes."

"I'll send you a more detailed report, but it won't say much more than what I've told you."

"Alright. Since I have everything done and there won't be any movement in Andromeda for another thirty-five hours minimum, I may as well go home."

"Then I'll talk to you tomorrow, cousin. As soon as I have news."

"Just remember, I have an appointment in the morning my time."

"I remember."

_Raista, 30 Kiraa , 4405, Faey Orthodox Calendar_

_ Thursday, 15 August 2019 Terran Standard Calendar_

_ Raista, 30 Kiraa, year 1330 of the 97__th__ Generation, Karinne Historical Reference Calendar_

_The Last Chance Tavern, Trejaki City, E Chaio_

He was getting used to the idea of this by now.

He sat at a small table on the second floor balcony of a large tavern frequented by Syndicate military personnel. It was called the Last Chance Tavern, since it was the last bar many enlistees got to enjoy before heading out for deployment. It was just outside the largest military installation on E Chaio, an area known as Trejaki City, which was about 500 kathra from the capitol building. Jason sat at the table with Gen using his new Benga bionoid, which used his facial features and body type, just upsized to Benga height and with his skin and hair color altered to make him look Benga. Blond was a very rare hair color for Benga, so his bionoid's hair was a amber-brown color, the closest it could get to blond and still be somewhat normal for a Benga. His bionoid's eyes were green like his real body, and his skin was Benga green. He did not in any way stand out in the tavern by his appearance, but he did stand out in that he wasn't in a uniform. He was wearing the maintenance coveralls of a mechanic, which wasn't _too_ unusual in a place like this.

This was a top of the line infiltration bionoid, just off the factory line two days ago and filled with both Rook's and the Kimdori's newest innovations. It had complete SCM to fool any sensor into thinking he was a Benga, it had the capability to eat and drink, it could even bleed if it was cut. That was a true marvel of engineering on Rook's behalf, finding a way to circulate synthesized Benga blood through an artificial capillary system in the bionoid's skin. The blood wouldn't pass muster if it was analyzed by a medical sensor, but it had the same look and consistency as Benga blood to casual observation. The bionoid had full biorhythmics for a Benga, and even had authentic, non-synthetic hair. It was hair from a large bovine from Algrath IV, but it had the closest consistency to Benga hair they could find. The sensor mesh in it was the newest iteration of sensory encoding/decoding technology, which Rook was calling Third Generation, giving moleculartronic systems very nearly biogenic throughput and sensitivity. It was the same simsense Cyvanne was using for her game, and would be the next upgrade to simsense released by Yila's simsense company. Nobody in the tavern suspected he wasn't a Benga, but there was one person in the place that knew what he was.

Gen sat across from him at the table, a mug of Benga ale in his hand but still resting on the table. Jason had resumed his visits with his friend since he settled into his new assignment, which was leading a warmech squadron until his enlistment was up and he retired with his pension in about three months. They'd been there for a good two hours, knocking back ales, eating _jik_ pods (which tasted like squash and were a rather tasty Benga "snack food"), and chatting about Gen's new assignment and Jason's fictitious adventures as the civilian foreman of a military equipment repair bay on the base. Gen was here to more or less train a squadron of future squadron commanders, all of his squadron members were going to be put in command of their own squadrons when Gen retired. Gen…wasn't very happy about that. They didn't feel they had to listen to him, that they knew better, and they'd been driving him a bit nuts the last month or so. Gen was now counting the days until he earned his pension, and the nimrods he had in his squadron now had poisoned him against the idea of staying on as a civilian contractor to train squadron commanders. Gen's squadron was the best because he hand-picked his people and he trained them himself from the ground up, and his commanders were starting to learn that just throwing a bunch of squadron commanders together into the same squadron and expecting them to become like Gen because Gen was training them wasn't going to work.

"Seriously? Right in the landing bay?" Jason asked, speaking fluent Benga, even with an E Chaio accent, making him sound like he was born and raised on the planet.

"I couldn't believe it," Gen said in disgust, which made Jason laugh despite himself. "I tell you, Jay, I'll be _so_ glad when I'm out of here. But, at least they sending us some new toys before I'm done."

"New Marauder models?"

He nodded. "Twenty prototypes, they want us to put them through their paces and see how they do. I gotta admit, they're well built mecha. New power plant that gives it more power, which means more powerful weapons, and upgraded armor plating so it's much tougher. New HUD system that's much more intuitive, movement prediction systems that learn from the pilots, and they're stronger and faster than the old model. Nothing like my _last_ mecha," he said with a slight smile, referring to the custom Marauder MRDD built for him, "but still fairly solid. So far, I've been impressed."

"We've always known that they've had the technical skill to design next-gen mecha, they just didn't want to spend the money," Jason said, to which Gen nodded sagely. "I guess they want to spend the money now."

"It's about damn time," Gen grunted, then he took a long drink of his ale. "I guess it took getting our asses kicked by the Confederation to make them see the light. Speaking of that, I know that you know a lot more about what's going on than just about anyone in Trejaki, Jay. Any word on the war?"

"The rumor mill's still pretty quiet," he answered. "The only thing I've heard is about what everyone else has. The Board reformed, and they're supposed to take up the treaty offer. As to when they do it or what they decide," he said, making a Benga gesture which meant _who knows_. "All of us can't do much but wait and see." He took a drink of his own ale, his fifth one since coming in, and he was glad it couldn't make him drunk. That was because, he had to admit, the ale in this place was _awesome_. Kreel would go absolutely nuts if he could taste this stuff. "If you're asking my personal opinion, they'll accept the treaty. They _need_ to, we need time to get our house in order before we take another shot at them."

That was exactly what a Benga would be expected to say in a public forum, where he could be overheard by other Benga.

He nodded knowingly. "I'm just glad I'll be retired by the time that happens," he said. "The last thing I want is to face those Confederation mecha again in a Marauder. They flew circles around us," he said sourly.

"I had to fix some of them after that battle out by Andrallon. I've never seen so much damage from a single battle," Jason said with a frown. "Hundreds of Marauders parked on the tarmac outside the maintenance hangar, all of them shot to hell. By the first coin, it took us nearly ten rotations just to clean up all the blood, let alone get them back in service."

"What do you plan to do after you retire, Jay? I know your date is up in just a few divisions."

"I got an offer from a new transport company," he answered. "They need mechanics that can work on just about anything, and well," he trailed off lightly.

Gen chuckled. "Sometimes I don't see why you're not in research."

"Cause I don't have time for all that politics bullshit," he retorted. "Just give me something broken to fix and I'm happy. I don't want to have to look over my shoulder all the time while I'm waist deep in a mecha. That's why I'm going with this new place. They said I'd be running the shop, and I'd be working on everything from Marauders to IBCC-121 personnel transports, to I-12 battle cruisers. My kind of job."

"I haven't heard about anything new."

"I'm surprised they didn't approach you. They told me they were building a private security force to protect their transports, and you're about to retire. They couldn't find anyone else better for it. I mean, if you still wanna do military work after you retire."

"I'm not sure," he replied, his eyes both puzzled and curious. "What's the name of this company?"

"Galaxy Express Transport," he said, which never failed to put a slight smile on his face. If only Zaa knew exactly where _Galaxy Express_ came from, she'd brain him. Then again, it was her fault for letting him name it, she knew he had a love of old Terran toy and cartoon references. "They approached me ten rotations ago about it. Said I'd be based on the Wheel. They bought four entire bays of hangar space in it." _The Wheel_ was a huge deep space station on the edge of the E Chaio system, that served as a major hub for both civilian and cargo traffic. "I have their contact address if you wanna talk to them about a job," he said enticingly, giving him a direct look. "The chance to hire Gen Lun Ba Ru? They'd jump all over it."

"I'll think about it, but I'll want to take a look at this operation first. I don't want to get burned by an underfinanced operation that goes under in an orbit," Gen said, giving him a slight, knowing nod. He was fully aware that Jason was offering him work when he got out of the Marines, and that it was Jason behind this new company. Gen was smart enough to know that the Confederation wasn't just going to _leave_. This was how Jason was telling him that the Karinnes were establishing a presence in Andromeda, and doing it by setting up their own corporation within the Syndicate's system.

"I liked what I saw, but then again, I'll be in a nice, safe hangar," Jason chuckled. "They've got some toys, Gen. Top of the line Marauders, EC-20 walkers, exoframe battle armor, and the IBCC-121 they had in the hangar getting repainted when I visited looked brand new. They said they were closing a deal on some old I-7 and I-12 battle cruisers to escort their transports and cargo ships, but those would take a while to get, and I'd have a hell of a lot of work to do when they got them. They said they were getting surplus mothballed ships and were going to refit them for service."

"That works, if they have a good maintenance crew," he said musingly. "I'll have to go take a look at this place when I have my next pass."

"Level four of the Wheel, bay 4-112 is where they're establishing their office space. I'll send them a message saying you're interested in a position and that you want to come up and inspect things."

"We'll see. Who knows, maybe I'll take my pension and start my own company. Lots of retired pilots do it."

"That's a dangerous way to live, doing the corps' dirty work for them off the books," Jason noted. "But if you do go that route, you can always swing by the Wheel and I'll fix your mecha and your ship when it gets shot up by pirates or corp security. At cost," he offered.

"Such a grand gesture," Gen smiled.

"We go too far back to be anything but wholesale with each other, Gen," Jason told him, another Benga expression. "I fix it, you break it. That's been our deal for quite a while."

Gen laughed. "It works well for both of us," he admitted.

"You know I'm never truly happy unless I'm elbows deep in a mecha, yelling and cursing at it like it swindled me," Jason grinned, which made Gen laugh again.

_[Jason, you need to return,]_ Kraal called, making sure to _not_ use the link. He sent it by commune to Jason's organic mind.

_[News?]_

_[By the time you get the bionoid back here, yes, there will be news,]_ he answered.

"Speaking of work, I'd better get back to the shop. No telling what those fungus-brains have messed up while I've been out," Jason said, hitting the button on the table's ordering console to finalize the bill. Given these were Benga, they had to pay for everything in advance, but finalizing the bill would let him get a receipt. Receipts were _big_ in the Syndicate system, and no Benga would ever so much as buy a single piece of candy without getting the receipt. The console on the table blinked, and he slotted his ID, which uploaded the receipt to his account. "Next time you buy," he reminded Gen as he stood up.

"It's a contract," Gen said as he stood up as well. "Next scheduled time?"

"Unless something changes. I'll send you a message if it does."

"Alright. Don't kill any of your mechanics."

"Sometimes I want to," he growled, which made Gen chuckle.

Kraal wasn't joking about it taking time to stow his bionoid. It took him nearly two hours to travel back to the glass factory Kraal was using for his base, but instead of stowing it, he came to Kraal's office. Kraal had set up sections of the underground sections of his operation with Benga-sized rooms, meaning the ceiling was more than high enough for Jason to function down here in his bionoid. Kraal and his Kimdori workers stayed in their normal shapes down here, but they were all at _Benga_ size, which meant that the complex was built to accommodate Benga. They had already absorbed the mass they needed to take Benga form, that way it would be a very fast process to take Benga shape. Kraal waved him into his upstairs office—he had a much more secure one in a section of the complex built for normal size, which would be very hard for Benga to get into it—and he sat down in the chair opposite his desk, his eyes on a monitor in front of him. "What did you find out?" Jason asked him without much preamble.

"The Board should be just finished voting on the peace treaty as we speak, if the information I just got a few minutes ago is good," he replied, which made Jason lean forward in his seat a little. "The last update I got was that the vote was scheduled for 1740 universal time, which was about twenty minutes ago. Right now I'm just waiting for the result from my operative in the administrative office. They'll send the vote to that office so it can be officially notarized and added to the Syndicate legal database."

"Any indication what the vote will be?"

"I'm fairly confident it will be to accept the peace treaty," he replied, then his monitor beeped. And that made him smile. "And I was right. They've accepted the treaty as proposed," he declared. "That means that the war is officially over, cousin."

The relief that flooded through him was so palpable it nearly broke his merge. "Thank God," Jason breathed. "That means I need to activate our peace plan while you tell Denmother, and she informs the rest of the Confederation. I want everything in motion before the emergency meeting is called."

Kraal nodded. "And the work is just beginning for me," he smiled.

"The only other Kimdori that could excel at this post is Miaari, Kraal, and I rather like her right where she is," he smiled.

He had to chuckle. "This is a challenging post," he said modestly.

"Let me stow my bionoid and get moving. Commune to my interface if you need to pass anything."

"I will."

Five minutes later, he was climbing out of the merge pod in the spare room off the master bedroom. It was dark in the room, just a night light on, because it was 02:10 on Karis right now. _[Cybi, did you eavesdrop on my merge?] _

_ [Do you have to ask?]_

_ [Snoop. But that does mean that you should have started waking people up,]_ he teased.

_[Of course I have. Everyone should be in the White House by the time you get dressed and get over there. I'll have a hologram over there, my bionoid is over on Sarga right now.]_

_ [Checking out Merra?]_

_ [Me and Cybri are playing Bingo.]_

_ [Playing what? Like _Bingo_ Bingo?]_

_ [Yup. Terrans opened a Bingo hall here last takir, and we're playing.]_

_ [God, you two must be cheating so much,]_ he accused as he stepped into the bedroom, where Jyslin was sleeping, and opened a dresser drawer.

_[I'll have you know that we're only playing two game sheets each,]_ she retorted primly. _[Each sheet has nine Bingo boards on it. And before you call _that_ cheating, there's an elderly Terran woman sitting three seats down from us playing _four_ sheets. You should watch her, Jason, she's a marvel of efficiency.]_

_ [What's the verdict?]_ he asked as he put on his jeans.

_[It's a weirdly fun game,]_ she replied. _[Very simple, but I'm enjoying myself. It's more fun because they don't allow technological assistance. Everyone has to take off their interfaces so they can't snap a pic of their game sheets and run a number marking program. So me and Cybri are marking the called numbers manually, just like everyone else.]_

_ [But you don't miss any numbers.]_

_ [Neither is that Terran woman,]_ she replied._ [What did Gen have to say?]_

_ [Not much. I offered him a job with Galaxy Express, and he said he'd think about it.]_

_ [I expect him to take it. He likes you, and he likes how the Karinnes do things. Prove to him that you're going to run the company the way you run Karis, and he'll sign on.]_

_ [Gen likes loyalty, and if I can prove I've got his back for the long haul, yeah, I think he'll take the job. I hope he does. Having Gen running the paramilitary force will make them damn formidable.]_

_ [Are you sending his custom Marauder?]_

_ [Most likely. Gen can just refuse to allow anyone but a shapeshifted Kimdori mechanic to work on it, which isn't unusual for riggers. We don't want anyone that's not our own ground crew messing with our rigs. He'll just have to learn to never put on the interface until the cockpit doors are closed.]_

_ [I think we can come up with a system for that, integrating the interface unit directly into the mecha so he can't take it out, and disguising it as an optical overlay or something,]_ Cybi mused. _[I'll talk to Myleena about it. As long as it's close enough to his brain to receive command thought, it'll work no matter what shape it's in.]_

_ [You're gonna disturb Myli with _that_? She's gonna rip out your sensor mesh one node at a time.]_

Cybi returned pure amusement in her commune. _[That's a fair point. Maybe I'll just take it to MRDD. They built Gen's Marauder in the first place, I'm sure they can come up with something.]_

_ [Now you're engaging your basic survival instincts,]_ he replied cheekily.

The command staff was waiting when he arrived in the command center, some of them bionoids and some of them there in person. "The Syndicate signed the treaty," he declared even as he walked in, which caused some sighs of relief and a few muted cheers. "So we're a go with the peace plan. Are we ready to execute it?"

"We are," Myri told him as she and Juma stepped up to the central console. "Trieste is already ninety percent evacuated, so we only have a little left to do. The Kimdori nearly have their sensor post ready to go, and the hyperspace probes are ready to deploy for long range surveillance, and the Benga military equipment is almost halfway stocked within the system. I think Bunvar's last report said that she'd have that done in about twelve days."

"What about the warships? Are they moved and ready?"

"Moved yes, ready no," Juma answered. "It's proving a little more difficult than we anticipated to completely scour the identities of the ships out of them. The refit teams are having to all but rebuild the entire computer core of each ship. But we should have the first ships ready to transfer to the transport company in about two takirs."

"I think we can live with that phase of the plan being behind schedule by five or six days," he said as he reached the console. "How are we on the soldiers on Atrovet?"

"As we expected, Jayce, every single one of them signed on," Sioa told him. "None of them want to be nopped. They're a little annoyed that we're holding them on the moon for now, but they're staying busy with the training regimens the Kimdori set up to prepare them for their new jobs. I think they'll be ready when the ships start being delivered."

"Make sure they have time to find apartments once we pull them off Atrovet," Jason warned. "I want each of them to have at least eight days to settle in where we station them before they start on-site training. After all, some of them have families they have to bring in."

"At least what passes for a family among Benga," Myri grunted.

"Have the personnel rosters been finalized for all of them?"

"It has," Navii told him. She was present in a bionoid, which had become her normal. Age was _really_ catching up to her, to the point where Jason was really worried about her. He'd tried to get her to retire three times in the last month alone, but she wouldn't hear of it. But, he did get a victory in that he sicced Songa on her, so now she was doing some supervised physical therapy to keep her strength up.

Songa was a total bulldog, and that worked in Jason's favor when she wasn't chasing _him_.

"We should have every worker where they need to be when they need to be there," Navii continued.

"Are the plans ready for pulling interdictors and Stargates?"

"It's ready," Juma answered. "Jrz'kii sent us a schedule for pulling every interdictor in the home galaxy and delinking and towing out the Stargates if necessary. The catapults will be left in place for now, pending how the council session tomorrow comes out. But we have a plan for pulling those as well, just in case."

"Then it sounds like we're good to go," Jason said.

"Or course we are. Now get out of here and let us do our jobs."

His next stop was at the newest building in the White House complex, the State building. Yeri's office had gotten too big for her floor in the main building, given she was dealing with both the Confederation and potentially thousands of civilizations not in it, so two months ago, Bunvar had built a new building on the grounds for Yeri and her department. Beyond her elegant white marble building was another new building only about halfway built, which would be the new Military Operations Center, and would house all Karinne military services, as well as have office space for both the Medical Service and the KES. The KES would still have their own building in the complex, the smallest one, but they needed a liaison office in the MOC for those times when the KES got drafted into the KMS during war time.

It was all part of the plan. In about a year and a half, Jason's executive office would be the only department left in the main building. So far, State, Power, Communications, Infrastructure, Finance, Production, Intelligence, Logistics, and Member Services had been moved out of the main building and into their own buildings, each one more than large enough to accommodate a department that might have upwards of 20,000 employees. Defense would be next, and then they would move Interior, and finally they would move Science, whose building would be the largest and most difficult to build, and they would be done. The main building, the original White House, would be the _smallest_ building in the complex—well, outside of Cybi's facility anyway—and would be surrounded by the much larger buildings holding the house's departments, all clustered around the massive trunk of Cybi's _oye_ tree.

That tree was now the center of the White House complex. The fence and grounds had been adjusted to put it squarely in the center. And Cybi's tree was the tallest structure in the Hill District, which was by design. It was the size of a 140 story building, it was now growing over the buildings in the Hill District, and Jason had made the order that no building would interfere with the tree in any way, limiting all buildings in the Hill District to about 100 stories. All buildings had to built under its canopy in a way so that the tree had a minimum of 100 shakra of clearance, which gave hovercars and zip ships room to fly between the rooftops and the lowest branches of the tree's canopy.

It wasn't much of a strain on the city. The Hill District was filled mostly with government offices, business offices that supported or were supported by government offices, and the headquarters buildings of all the main corporations that operated on Karis, both domestic and foreign. Jason allowed certain corps to have HQs on the planet, those that did extensive business with Karis, and most prominent among them were the Ruu and the Moridon. The Moridon had 46 different HQ buildings in the Hill District for their banks, financial services organizations, and various commercial and industrial corporations that did business with the house, and the Ruu had about 87 different major corporations that did extensive business with the house, since the Ruu would do no business with any civilization they felt was a threat to their security. Since the Karinnes were about the _only_ empire the Ruu would trade with, they had hundreds of corporate HQs scattered across Karis. Most of the employees in those HQs were Karinne citizens, with the upper executives being outsiders who were allowed to live and work on Karis by special arrangement, much as the Paladins bachi players, trainers, and staff were.

There were non-Karinnes living on Karis, but they were extremely rare and they had to go through an exhaustive background check to win the right to live here as permanent resident aliens. And it was no surprise that the most numerous of those resident aliens were Ruu and Moridon.

One of them was Scientist RDX…except she was Scientist QBD now, having gained some notable rank over the last few months due to her success in the interphasic powered armor project. She was still on Karis, and still working on IP armor to further advance it. She was now working for MRDD as a consultant, in a special project that was a joint venture with the Ruu. It was something of a test to see how well Karinnes and Ruu worked together on a major project, and thus far, it had been a success.

And when she finished that project, Jason would find another one for her, something that she and her Ruu team could work on jointly with the Karinnes. QBD was too good to let get away, and she was trusted by both Jason and Myleena.

Yeri's office was just off the main pool office for all her department heads and undersecretaries, which gave her quick and easy access to any of her main aides and underlings, an office layout used by the KMS in the command center that Yeri had found entirely practical to use in her own building. She and her entire staff were in the main office when Jason came in, sitting around a round table in the center of the large room with the secretaries of the Undersecretaries, department heads, and Yeri's main office along the walls on the sides, banks of desks flanking the door leading to the private office of the Undersecretary or department chief for which they worked. Airskin sound dampening units were installed between the office desk clusters, which made the very large room surprisingly quiet, isolating conversations to just that department, but put everyone within eyesight of one another.

"I see Cybi told you," Jason said as Cybi and the other CBIMs all manifested holograms in the room, opting for the very small, one shakra tall variants that were on the main table.

"We're implementing our action plan right now, Jason," she told him with a nod. "I've already sent down the orders to our emissaries and diplomats stationed on Terra."

"And what word so far?"

"You'll have to speak with Miaari about the most current decisions, but it's more or less as we expected. The majority of the small empires will stay in the Confederation for the protection it provides and the economic opportunities it offers. Among the largest empires, the Imperium, both Skaa empires, Verutans, Haumda, and Alliance have all confirmed they will stay in the Confederation. Thus far, the only confirmed empires that intend to leave the Confederation are the Jun, the Haiva, and the Prakarikai."

"I'm not surprised at all that the Jun are leaving, given their culture. And I'm not sure if I should be sad about the Prakarikai leaving or not," Jason noted, which made Yeri chuckle.

"I'm personally not surprised at their decision. Anivan absolutely hates you, and Anivor sees the Confederation as a shackle around the ankle of his people. He finds the Confederation's rules too restrictive, though he doesn't object to the Confederation itself. So expect Anivor to try to keep an amicable relationship with the Confederation…most likely so Anivan has the time and opportunity to send in her spies. As far as the Jun go, Quord made it clear to me just a few minutes ago that the Jun will keep diplomatic channels open with the Confederation and retain the trade agreements they made with us, so they aren't going to isolate themselves again. And that he still considers the Karinnes a friend of the Jun."

"Good, I don't want to see them retreat behind their walls again. But what reason do the Haiva have to leave? I thought they were quite happy being in the Confederation," Jason asked.

"As you know, the Haiva are completely dominated by their Emperor, Jason. And I hate to tell you this, but he doesn't like you. That's all the reason he needs."

"He's going to hamstring his entire empire over a personal dislike of me?" Jason asked in surprise.

"Yes, exactly that," she said with a nod. "Baklid correctly believes that _you_ are the real power within the Confederation, because you can shut down the entire Confederation with one order to turn off the Stargates," she elaborated. "And he doesn't want to be in an organization where he is at the mercy of someone he doesn't like or trust. And I wouldn't be surprised if more empires give that reason, Jason," she warned. "Quite a few rulers simply don't _trust_ you, not after the translight drive incident, when you basically threatened the entire Confederation with ruin if they didn't do what you say. The fact that you control the Stargates and the interdictors makes some of them very wary about continuing to give you that much control over their empires."

"But that's not what I said," he protested. "I made it very clear that so long as you don't try to steal drive tech—"

"But that's what they _heard_, Jason," she told him firmly. "What they _heard_ was you threatening to annihilate anyone that challenged you, sounding very much like an overlord commanding sovereign rulers as if they were your minions. You had the right to say what you said, Jason, but the _way_ you said it was…not very diplomatic," she said delicately.

He gave her a long look, honestly shocked. He'd never considered, not in a million years, that his speech to the council would have _that_ kind of an effect. But, now that she'd said it, and seeing that it _did_, he could at least understand her point of view. And it filled with him both chagrin and regret. If he'd have known now what effect that speech would have, he would have _definitely_ found a more diplomatic way to say it.

He'd been Grand Duke for nearly ten years, but even he would admit that he was by no means a master of this job.

"Well…hell," he sighed, putting his hands on the table. "How many empires do you suspect may leave the Confederation purely over me, Yeri?"

"I'd say twenty to thirty," she replied. "But that's just a rough estimate."

"And every one that leaves is at risk from their former allies in the Confederation," he said darkly. "Granted, they'll have Confederation-level tech, so it'll be a complete bloodbath if a war breaks out, but someone like Dahnai might just try it despite the casualties and cost."

"It was inevitable that not everyone was going to stay in," Goma Karinne, one of Yeri's undersecretaries, injected. "What matters most is that the most important empires are staying in."

"I can't argue with that, but I'm still worried," Jason said. "I'll have to think about it. Is our own statement ready to go?" he asked Yeri.

"Yes, as is our diplomatic strategy for the council meeting tomorrow morning," she answered. "I'll have the file sent to you as soon as my staff finishes the last few edits."

"I'll go over it after I get home after talking to Miaari," he answered. "I don't think I'm getting any sleep tonight."

It was a short walk in a steady rain from Yeri's building to Miaari's building—they put them side by side for obvious reasons—and he settled himself down in Miaari's relatively new office, which followed Kimdori tradition in that it was a good three stories underground. "Thus far, Denmother hasn't shared very much of what our people have learned from the others," she told him in Kimdori as soon as he sat down. The entire underground complex under the building used Kimdori protocols that required then to speak Kimdori. "But what I can say is that the Confederation is going to lose members after tomorrow. The only question will be how many."

"Yeri said the same thing, and I was a bit surprised that _I'm_ the reason for some of it," he said ruefully.

"For some. For others, they want the freedom that not being subject to the Confederation provides, and others, like the Jun, want to return to their original ways. What matters most, though, is that the empires that can most threaten us are staying in," she declared. "That keeps them firmly allied to us."

"But it also keeps them in a position where they can do damage to us," Jason said. "You know I've been kicking around the idea of scaling back Karinne participation in the Confederation after the wars were over. After what Yeri just told me, I'm going to give that a lot more thought. If I pull back, then maybe some of them will stay in. I don't want them being attacked by the very people they fought alongside just a few months ago."

"There's not going to be a perfect solution to that problem, Jason. To have that protection, they have to accept the limitations that comes with having it. And that includes being subject to your rules when it comes to using the Stargates."

"So, some want to conquer rather than colonize," Jason frowned.

"Yes," she said directly. "But the saving grace for us is, they won't have access to Stargates in order to do it. That will restrict them mainly to this galaxy."

They were interrupted by a hologram of Zaa appearing to the side of her desk, and she didn't look happy. "Denmother," he said. "Any news?"

"Yes, and I am still contemplating the ramifications," she replied. "The Coalition just voted as a block to leave the Confederation."

"The _entire_ Coalition?" Jason gasped.

She nodded. "The decision is binding on the Subrians, since the Coalition entered the Confederation as a single entity. They have no choice but to withdraw as well. Holikk is _most_ displeased, and is seeking legal maneuvers to have the Subrians rejoin the Confederation alone. But that might not be possible, it could cause the dissolution of the Coalition, and Holikk will not risk that."

"Well…_fuck_," he said in a growl. "What possible reason do they have for that?"

"They believe that they can develop equivalent technology to the Karinnes without being shackled to the restrictions you place on them," she answered. "The Coalition is highly advanced, and while they don't know how most of Karinne technology works, they've seen what it can do. A clever scientist can figure out the process in order to achieve a result he knows is possible. The Coalition has decided to pool all its scientific resources to develop their own technology to stand equal to the Karinnes and the Ruu."

That was _bad news_. The Coalition was extremely large, even larger by volume than the rest of the Confederation, and now they had Confederation-level technology and tons of warships. The Coalition became an instant competitor with the Confederation from a military standpoint, as well as an economic standpoint. The Coalition had a powerful, robust economy—the Coalition was primarily a _business _arrangement—and it was more than rich enough to pursue that objective.

"Any more bad news before I start crying right in front of Miaari?" Jason asked. Miaari did not laugh.

"Not as of yet, cousin. But I think you should keep your comm open and stay close to it."

That was what he did. After discussing the situation more with Miaari, he returned home and went straight to his office on the third floor—it would be on the fourth floor soon, they were going to expand the house again in a couple of months—he read the report that Yeri sent to him and kept in touch with Miaari and Zaa.

By daybreak, the outlook for the Confederation was much dimmer than it had been when the sun set the night before. By Zaa's estimation, 71 of the 161 members of the Confederation were going to withdraw. The entire Coalition was withdrawing, which forced the Subrians to do the same, as were a smattering of mid-sized empires scattered through the galaxy. The largest and most notable of them were the Prakarikai, the Crai, and the Nakkli. But further, 12 of the smaller empires were going to shift from being active members to neutral observers, withdrawing from the military alliance but keeping their diplomatic and economic contacts open with the Confederation.

He should have seen this coming. With the entire Confederation gaining access to real-time jump engines, and the development of technology that made extended jumps safe for crews, it freed up the empires to explore the entire galaxy…and the galaxy was more than big enough for many of them to feel content. After all, the galaxy was only 23% explored by the Confederation by the Karinne's own estimation. They would lose access to other galaxies, but the real-time jump engines would allow them to expand their empires within the galaxy, by conquest if they so desired, without having the Karinnes and the Confederation standing in their way. And if they were patient and determined, they could reach the Magnum Dwarf formation in about four months, and Ilviros in six. For them, building galaxy-spanning empires of thousands of star systems within the Milky Way was more than enough. They would leave the other galaxies to the Confederation and expand their power and influence within this one.

And which empire was the one gearing up for major military action to start that conquering? Who else, the Prakarikai. As Jason feared, they were going to take the technology they got from the Confederation and the navy they built to fight the Andromedans, and turn around and use it to expand their empire. But they wouldn't be doing it in their home sector, because all the other empires in their sector wisely were remaining in the Confederation, which gave them protection against the Prakarikai.

To be fair, the Verutans had the same plan, but they wanted to expand into other galaxies through colonization, not through war and conquest. Shakizarr had a grand plan of becoming an intergalactic power just like the Karinnes, with thousands and thousands of systems under his control spanning across the entire galactic cluster, and do it peacefully…because it was faster to colonize than it was to conquer.. That, Jason could respect.

The plan to pull the interdictors was already in motion. That was agreed to long ago, that the Karinnes would pull the interdictors when peace was achieved to allow the free movement of traffic in and out of systems once again. Jrz'kii's KMM had already pulled 329 interdictors, and would have most of them pulled by the end of today, at least from every system except the capitol system of each planet. Those interdictors had the biogenic comm nodes in them that were required for the upcoming meeting. But, when those empires withdrew from the Confederation, their interdictors would be pulled within minutes of them officially leaving the Confederation, and they'd lose access to the biogenic comm network that gave them real-time communication capability with the rest of the galaxy. Jrz'kii would have tugs standing by and ready to jump in the _instant_ an empire was no longer part of the Confederation. And Juma would have a task force on the board and ready to respond if any empire refused to allow the Karinnes to take their interdictor.

And if they still resisted, well, there were systems in place inside an interdictor to ensure anyone who captured one got _nothing_, not even its carapace hull.

The biogenic comm system was one of the little things that Jason guessed a lot of them overlooked, but would _really_ regret once it was taken away.

Ayama brought up a plate of Aklian eggs, Terran bacon, and Shio _bai _toast as he pored over more reports, as the rest of the house woke up to start their day, sendings and commune starting to get thick in the air as the kids started chatting with each other across the strip. He didn't remember eating, he barely remembered Jyslin coming up to kiss him goodbye before she went to work, getting ready for one of the most important council meetings ever held by the Confederation.

Not all of his preparations were going to be on Karis. After finishing breakfast, he merged to the bionoid he kept on Terra, moving from the council chamber up to Secretary General Kim's office. The slim Korean shook his hand as he came in and motioned for him to sit down, and Jason noticed that Kim's desk was cluttered with datasticks and papers; the U.N. still used paper for some things. "I expected to see you yesterday, Jason," he said, speaking Korean.

Jason responded in kind, since he'd had Korean inserted into his memory more or less just for Kim. "I had a lot going on, probably as much as you," he answered. "We're going to need to make some plans, Duk. Denmother brought back intel that a significant chunk of the Confederation is going to withdraw."

"She warned me, and I've had people working on it," he replied, rummaging over his desk and picking up a datastick, then slotting it in the panel on the side. A hologram appeared over the desk. "This is the rough draft of a separation plan, what we need to do if an empire leaves the Confederation. What they take with them, what we have to recover, and new rules about how that empire can operate on Terra. We're not kicking them out, Terra is a neutral planet, but they will have some of their privileges revoked. Ayuma told me that you're not changing the Academy?"

He shook his head. "It has nothing to do with the Confederation. If an empire withdraws, it won't change how they interact with the Academy in any way, except they'll be locked out of the secure areas of the mainframe meant only for Confederation members. Their students, their teachers, their scientists, that won't change."

"It's good to hear that," Kim nodded. "It answers several questions some of my people had. Are any of the core members going to withdraw?"

"In the home sector cluster? Only the Jun and the Prakarikai," he replied. "And the Jun is no surprise, everyone knew they'd leave once the threat of the Syndicate was ended. Everyone else is staying in, including the Skaa, Alliance, Verutans, and the Haumda."

"Thank God," Kim breathed. "So long as the sector cluster remains united, our former allies won't dare challenge us. The core members can field a navy more than large enough to challenge any individual empire, even one the size of the Crai Maybe even big enough to challenge the Coalition."

"Which is exactly why all of us are staying in," Jason said with a nod. "Those of us who have been in longest know that we are stronger together than we are alone."

"Those of us who fought the Consortium," Kim said, to which Jason nodded. "They picked us apart when we were separate empires, but we took them down when we united and fought back. That was a powerful lesson for all of us. I doubt that the members of the Confederation that fought in the Consortium War will ever withdraw from the Articles. We've grown too close over the years. It's almost as if we're a single empire anymore. The Skaa, the Alliance, the Imperium and the Urumi, the Karinnes, the Shio and the Colonies, we've been joined by bonds forged in fire and tempered in the blood of the people we lost, and those will be almost impossible to break."

"Well said, Duk," Jason said strongly.

They discussed the separation plan that Kim's office had worked up, and Jason could admit, it looked good. It completely removed an empire from the Confederation, but it did it _nicely_, an amicable separation. But it didn't miss anything. It dealt with that empire's involvement in the CCM, the infrastructure within the empire that was Confederation property, and the treaties and agreements that existed in the Articles that applied to all members. It created a twelve day process that removed the empire, everything from pulling catapults and the Stargate to giving military officers attached to the CCM time to clean out their offices and put their affairs in order, and it didn't miss anything.

What it _also_ did was more or less put the entire Confederation on hold until its members sorted themselves out. It included a comprehensive security plan made by Kiaari that protected sensitive Confederation information from those that planned to leave, who might try to take as much intel and information as possible before they walked out the door. It also released all CCM assets back to their home empires, more or less forcing them back into home space, whether they were going to leave or not, to clear out space around Terra so they could figure things out.

That order had already been sent out. Jason and Kim watched as warships from every empire in the Confederation headed for their Stargates, returning to their home territory.

Kim's people were good, and this plan proved it.

Jason and Kim discussed things right up until the council session, the two of them walking in together as most of the council rose up from the storage pods under the floor. He took his normal place between Brayrak and Zaa as Kim took his on the Speaker's podium, sitting to the left of the podium as Jason looked at it. That position represented Terra's unique position within the Confederation, the host of its offices and organization, but not a part of it. Technically Kim was a neutral observer, but his seat was on the dais at the front of the room, which held the aides and staff of the Speaker's office. The current holder of the gavel was Chidari Chann, High Minister of the Jhri, and he didn't waste any time once the last member was present.

There were no aides or lackeys, every ruler was here for this meeting.

Chidari gaveled them into session, and he got straight to the point. "As most of you know, the Syndicate has accepted the peace treaty, which means that the war with Andromeda is over," he declared. "That means that the core mission of the Confederation has been completed. Now comes the time, friends, that we must decide what steps we will take from this point. I know that some of you plan to leave the Confederation, some plan to remain, and that some of you have not yet decided. This council session will be split into two parts. A briefing on the peace treaty and its ramifications for our galaxy, and for me, as the current Speaker, to explain what comes next. The Speaker's Office and the Confederation Planning Bureau has drawn up a comprehensive plan for us to move forward, and each empire will learn how that process will work. This process will _not_ be subject to a vote, for one simple reason. The Speaker's Office has determined that it is unfair to the Confederation for empires that intend to leave to have the opportunity to vote on the plan that will allow them to depart. The plan falls under Paragraph Four, Section Two of the Articles, and as such falls under the auspices of the Speaker's Office."

And that began a marathon nine hour session of the council. First, they were fully informed about the peace treaty, what it meant, and that it effectively ended any threat that the Syndicate might pose to the Milky Way. With them unable to cross over without being spotted and dealt with _years_ before they arrived, it made the people of the Milky Way safe from them. And with the Consortium a few _billion _light years away, they posed no threat either. It would take them 13,393 years to get back to the Milky Way from where they were.

After that was done, Chidari got into the new business. The rulers listened as he laid out the process for an empire to withdraw from the Confederation, and more importantly, what it would mean for the empire. He warned them that they'd no longer have the mutual protection pact, that the free trade agreement would be withdrawn, and most importantly to many of them, that the Stargate leading to Terra would be removed. He went over how the trade treaties would change, which ones would be canceled and which would remain, and went over how the empire's relationship with Terra and the Academy would work after they were out. He did a surprisingly thorough job given he only read the plan himself a few hours ago, but then again, he was a Jhri. Jhri had _exceptional_ memories.

After that, the rulers started making their speeches. Some of them came right out and declared their intent to leave, either giving little reason or going into an exhaustive one hour presentation on why they felt it was necessary for them to leave. Voss was the one that did that, making it clear that she was proud to have been in the Confederation and approving of it, and having a personal wish to stay in, but that her personal desires could not come before the needs of her empire. She felt that the interests of the Crai Empire were best served by no longer being in the Confederation, and she had to do what was best for the empire, not what was best for her.

Surprisingly, Voss' speech was longer than Anivan's, who also declared her intent to withdraw, but she made it abundantly clear that it was _Jason Karinne_ that was the primary reason the Prakarikai were leaving. She accused of him of being the shadow behind the Speaker's podium, the true power and decision maker within the Confederation, and the Prakarikai were not about to be ruled by anyone other than themselves. She found the rules Jason had concerning the use of Karinne technology to be an insult to her throne and a direct challenge to the sovereignty of the Prakarikai, and now that the Syndicate was no longer a threat, the Prakarikai were _done_ with the Karinnes and the Confederation. She then called everyone planning to stay in the Confederation Karinne lapdogs too afraid of the big bad universe to step out from behind Jason's legs.

She didn't just burn her bridge with the rest of the council, she _nuked_ it. But then again, it was all part of the Prakarikai plan to expand their power, mainly by being an eternal thorn in Jason's side. Zaa said they intended to push, and push, and push, to see how far they could go before Jason responded, to take as much as possible without inciting him to take action.

She was going to be bitterly disappointed in that plan in very short order. Jason had a plan of his own.

Jason spent that time split between listening to speeches and coordinating things with a variety of people, getting the Karinnes ready for what was coming in both senses. When Chidari was about to end the session, asking if anyone else had something to say, he ended his splits and stood up.

"I have only one thing to say. It was an honor to serve with all of you, both those who are leaving and those who are staying, and I wish all of us peace and prosperity from this day forward."

And then he sat back down.

The end of the session wasn't even the halfway point of his day. An hour later, he was sitting at a table out on the patio of Dahnai's summer palace along with the other seven original members of the Confederation, and they spent nearly ten hours discussing the situation and making plans for moving forward. Their number steadily increased over those hours as they contacted other rulers from the home sector cluster to discuss matters, then those rulers came over to join the discussion, until every ruler in the home sector cluster was sitting around a very large round table that Dahnai's staff had brought out from storage. Everyone was there except for Anivan, and Jason suspected that everyone was glad of that. _Everyone_ hated Anivan. Even Quord was in attendance despite the Jun's intention to leave the Confederation, which Jason saw as a promising sign. The Jun were going to return to their custom of isolation, but Quord being there told him that they weren't going to completely close the door. Quord had made friends and allies during his time in the Confederation, and some of the strongest of those allies were sitting at the table with him.

It was just past sunset when they got through the majority of their discussions and started ranging into less serious topics. While Sk'Vrae was taking a twenty minute "power nap," they held off on serious discussions so she wasn't excluded. "I think I'm going to lay down a wager on how long it takes Anivan to get her navy blown up," Kreel said cheekily, leaning back in his chair with a tankard of Makati ale in his hand. "She sure made it clear in that council session that she's spoiling for a fight."

"Zaa's operatives said that's just about exactly what they have in mind," Jason said in disgust. "They started it before the session even started. They tried to deny my tugs permission to come in and retrieve the interdictors once the peace treaty was finalized."

"Isn't there one left at Prakarika?" Dahnai asked.

"No, it's gone. It was pulled about two hours ago."

_"It wasn't an easy task,"_ Cybi said from a hovering camera pod. None of the CBIMs were present in hologram form, but they were all listening. _"The Prakarikai threatened the KMM tugs that jumped in to retrieve the interdictor. We were forced to execute Plan B."_

"That sounds ominous," Enva said with a slight smile.

"Oh, just a little something extra we added to the interdictors to make sure that the host empire would _beg_ us to take them," Jason said without much humor. "The one at Prakarika was rigged with a gravimetric harmonic subduction field."

"And that means what in non-science?" Kreel asked.

"Oh, just a little gadget that reproduces the effect of my subsonic vibration units on a planetary scale, utilizing gravimetric oscillation on specific harmonics instead of subsonic vibration," he said pleasantly. "The effect would be like the entire planet being dunked in a giant vat of itching powder."

"You _didn't_!" Enva gasped, then she burst into nearly hysterical laughter.

"Of course I did, I can't stand those little pricks," he said with a snort. "When their scientists figured it was the interdictor doing it, they dropped all resistance to us taking it out of orbit. I guess they were tired of scratching themselves bloody. Anivan did the usual yelling and screaming, calling it an act of war, but Yeri simply referred her to the written agreement that put the interdictors there in the first place. You know, that little clause that stated that the House of Karinne had the legal right to exert whatever force is necessary to recover an interdictor in the case that the host empire would refuse to allow us to take it back. She was doing her ranting while trying her best not to squirm and scratch at herself, so she didn't look like a complete spaz in front of Yeri. She failed miserably."

"I hope Yeri recorded that?" Kreel grinned impishly.

"I'll send all of you a copy," Jason said, which caused some laughter around the table. "Anivan seems to have forgotten that I cheat outrageously."

"I've heard all kinds of stories from Jys and the girls," Dahnai grinned at him. "Some of the pranks you guys have pulled are legendary."

"We play rough on Karis," he said mildly, which caused more laughter.

"Any other trouble outside of that?"

"Nope," Jason replied. "Juma reported in a bit ago and told me they're removed the primary interdictors from several empires that are withdrawing, and that it was all orderly and polite. That reminds me, we need to talk about the one at Jun-ara, Quord," he said, looking over at him. "We'll pull the interdictor, but I wanted to know if you wanted me to leave the biogenic comm node there. I trust the Jun not to bother it."

"I'll have to discuss the matter with the Senate, Jason," he replied. "But in the short term, you can simply have the interdictor turned off until a decision is made."

"Cybi," he prompted.

_"I'm having it turned off as we speak, Prime Senator,"_ she confirmed.

"Thank you, Jason. The Karinnes have proven to be true friends of the Jun. As have everyone else at this table," he said with an honest smile. "It's our hope that you allow us to return to our ways, but indulge us the occasional diplomatic call or missive."

"You'll always be welcome on Draconis, Quord," Dahnai said with an earnest smile.

"And on Veruta," Shakizarr nodded.

"I'd say you're welcome anywhere in the sector cluster, Quord," Kreel told him. "And I'm glad you were with us. I have no doubt that the Union and the Jun will move forward from today with an enduring friendship."

"We will, Kreel," Quord assured him. "The Grimja and our other neighbors have earned our respect."

"We will need to talk about the Prakarikai, Prime Senator," Verdunn of the Farguut cautioned. "You're the only other empire in the cluster that has withdrawn. That makes you a target."

"You won't have to worry about that, Quord," Kreel said with a predatory smile. "If they attack you, they'll get a whole lot of _us_ in their face. You may not be a member of the Confederation anymore, but you _are_ a loyal friend of the Grimja, and we will be a loyal friend to you. And we won't tolerate those little asses invading the Fatherland."

"Neither will we," Verdunn declared. "Anivan will find out quickly that as far as the Farguut are concerned, the Jun are still our military allies and we will come to their defense if they are attacked."

"I think you can take it on general acclimation that everyone at this table will stand with the Fatherland," Dahnai said, which caused everyone to nod or rumble in assent. "And dear Trelle, Sk'Vrae would have a complete nuclear meltdown if Anivan dared attack you. The Brood Queen holds you in the highest respect, Prime Senator, and she would be _beyond_ furious if the Jun were invaded. She's send the entire Urumi navy against Anivan, and they'd have the entire Imperium and Karinne navies right behind them."

"Damn right we would," Jason agreed. "In fact, the Urumi would be chasing after us to get there first."

"That respect is mutual," Quord said, his expression almost embarrassed. "And from the depth of my heart, thank you, my friends. Your support of the Fatherland is most appreciated."

"The Fatherland will remain in the hands of the Jun for so long as the stars do shine," Shakizarr said. Jason recognized it from a Jun opera. "Those are words of truth, and even those who are not Jun believe them. If the Prakarikai move against you, Quord, the Verutan military is only a call away. The Fatherland shall endure, because people on _both_ sides of the border will protect it."

After Sk'Vrae returned from her nap, they got back to business, and that business lasted nearly another eight hours. Jason had more and more trouble paying attention, concentrating as each hour passed, since he hadn't slept in days, to the point where Dahnai more or less called it off close to sunrise because Jason was nodding off. She offered him a guest bedroom in the palace, and he was quite grateful to all but crawl up the stairs and drag himself into the bed. By that point, he'd been awake for 71 hours, and he simply had nothing left.

But he didn't have time to sleep. The next few takirs were going to be insanely busy, and the house needed him awake and alert. But for now, he had no choice. It was sleep or collapse.

_Raista, 14 Romaa , 4405, Faey Orthodox Calendar_

_ Thursday, 4 September 2019 Terran Standard Calendar_

_ Raista, 14 Romaa, year 1330 of the 97__th__ Generation, Karinne Historical Reference Calendar_

_Foxwood East, Karsa, Karis_

It was done.

Jason read the final separation report that finalized the withdrawal of the last empire leaving the Confederation, the Wadiri, as rain pelted the window behind him. The hologram was illuminated by a flash of light from a bolt of lightning, then the following thunder startled Amber out of her nap, laying in his lap. He put a calming hand over her back, and she settled back down. The last steps of the separation process had been completed, and the Wadiri were no longer part of the Confederation's network. The Wadiri had been removed from the Confederation's computer networks, Wadiri workers in Confederations bureaus had been dismissed and replaced, the Wadiri officers in the CCM installations had been transferred out, and what annoyed the Wadiri the most, the biogenic comm node that had connected Wadiri II to the galactic biogenic network had been removed. The Wadiri's addresses had been removed from the comm system by Siyhaa, so even if the node was still there, the Wadiri were locked out of the galactic biogenic network.

They _really_ thought they were going to get to keep that. They thought wrong.

As Jason suspected, that one little thing was making quite a few of them feel quite a bit of buyer's remorse over their decision to leave the Confederation. Their citizens had just gotten used to having access to the galactic biogenic network, and to lose it now felt to them like they'd taken a major step backwards. It was more than just the entertainment, it was losing access to sending their bionoids to remote locations, it was losing substantial business opportunities for their financial sectors, and it was losing real-time access to the Academy mainframe. Each empire had to revert back to extreme-distance gravband systems, which were not in real time and had bandwidth restrictions the further away they had to transmit. Empires on the far side of the galaxy were the most affected, with data requests from the Academy mainframe taking up to nine hours to process…and if it was a lot of data, it could take _days_ to transfer.

The Confederation that would see the sun rise in the morning would be very different from the one that had fought against the Syndicate. They now had 90 members, having lost 71 after the peace treaty, and while those members were still spread across the entire galaxy, the vast majority of them were in the home quadrant, the S quadrant, and nearly half were in the home sector cluster. Yesterday, they had voted in new Articles that defined the Confederation's role in this new time of peace, which made it look much more like the Coalition. It was now an alliance of trade, finance, and shared scientific advancement, much what Jason had envisioned for it, but it did still maintain the CCM and continued to work together militarily. The CCM would be much smaller, still commanded by Lorna, but their mission now was to train to be ready in case there was another war. It would ensure the member militaries of the Confederation would be ready and able to work under CCM rules if needed.

The rules holding them together were still minimal and relaxed. The Confederation still had no control over its member empires outside of how they treated each other. Each empire was still sovereign, could make its own deals and agreements outside the Confederation, and still had full control of its military assets. It was still a loose alliance of various empires to ensure peace was maintained between them and that they would be ready to work together if the Confederation was threatened by an outside force, but each empire would work more or less independently of one another during peace. There were free trade agreements to allow the free flow of trade goods throughout the Confederation, which would keep the economies of all members strong, and there were right of passage treaties for civilian craft within member nations so citizens could visit other Confederation members, which would foster peace and cooperation.

The new Articles codified Terra's status as the host of the Confederation but _not_ a member, holding a unique status that allowed Kim to sit on the council as a neutral observer…really just continuing the way things already worked, just making it much more official. It recognized Terra as a true neutral planet that had military protection from the CCM, and refined the rules that allowed the Confederation to have its bureaus and offices on Terra, but what was new was that the Confederation would _pay_ Terra for the privilege.

That was the other new part, and one that Jason was surprised had no resistance from the council. Every member of the Confederation would contribute .01% of their gross domestic product to the Confederation so it would _finally_ pay for itself, rather than relying on Terra, and by proxy the Karinnes and the Imperium, to pay for everything. Terra had paid for every office building the Confederation used, and was paying the salaries of the people who worked in those buildings. Now, the Confederation would be paying for it using funds donated by its members…and in reality, the Confederation's operations didn't cost all that much to operate, so nobody really got into a twist over the minor amount of money they'd have to contribute. The Confederation's agencies and bureaus were very small, they operated using a minimalist approach to ensure they didn't infringe on the sovereignty of their members, which translated to their operating expenses being surprisingly small for an organization its size. Kim had built a very effective system that always kept its eyes on its finances, since Terra was paying for it, and it was such a model of efficiency and cost-effectiveness that many member empires had sent their people to study it, to see if they could reproduce Kim's model of efficiency within their own empires.

It wasn't Kim that built it, though, it was his Kizzik organizational experts. When someone wanted something built that was a marvel of efficiency, one called in the Kizzik. They were _gods_ when it came to efficiency.

Most member rulers saw the yearly amount they had to contribute as an investment, not an expense, because they got a whole lot back for that money in the form of services and access to formidable infrastructure that was exclusive to Confederation members.

That was what kept many of them in. Jason had removed the Stargates, the Karinnes were going to need them for exo-galactic exploration operations, but the _catapults_ remained within member territory, and those catapults allowed member empires to move ships and freighters around Confederation territory without having to spend the money to upgrade their engines to real-time capability. It made them competitive traders and strengthened their economies without having to spend massive credits upgrading their fleets…like some former members were going to have to do.

But not all of the former members were _completely_ out of the picture when it came to the Confederation. Only the Prakarikai left on bad terms with the others, so many former members made quite a few trade deals with their former allies, and the most prominent player in that game was the Coalition. The Coalition's long-term game plan became apparent over the last twenty days, building solid trade relationships with the Confederation members in the P and Q quadrants, as well as the Crai, to maintain their economic success while they geared up to do a lot of scientific research. Zaa told him that their game plan was to stay as close to the Confederation as possible as they developed their own versions of Karinne technology, and when they managed it, they'd have Confederation-level infrastructure without having to follow the rules that came with access to it. The Coalition might be able to pull that off, at least with some things like catapults, since they were so advanced already, but it would take them years to get to where the Imperium was.

It was no surprise that their primary focus of research would be Stargates. The Coalition wanted to develop their own version of a Stargate, and their time in the Confederation had given them access to sufficient data and theory to try to build their own version. And while Jason wouldn't help them, he would cheer them on. If they could do it, bully for them, much as he rooted for the Ruu in their attempts to develop their own translight drive. His oaths didn't restrict him from allowing others to develop similar technology to the Karinnes _on their own_. If they pulled it off, he'd be the first to congratulate them.

But there was a tiny bit of conflict within the Coalition, and it was because of Holikk. Holikk was still _pissed_ that the Coalition forced the Subrians to leave the Confederation, but it didn't look good for them to get back in by themselves legally. Their commitments to the Coalition would prevent them from rejoining the Confederation on their own. So, Holikk being Holikk, he did his best to establish as many ties with his former allies as possible from the outside, building a large network of trade deals and research agreements with members of the Confederation, the Karinnes and the Imperium being the most prominent among them. Those deals were exclusive to the Subrians, which ensured that they would remain the most powerful and advanced empire within the Coalition.

In all, Jason was quite satisfied with what had emerged from the dust of the Confederation downsizing. It was still focused on keeping the peace and keeping its members financially prosperous, and it still did its best to not step on its members' toes, allowed them to do as they willed as much as possible. And that, Jason suspected, was why so many stayed in even beyond the protection the military alliance provided them. Not a single small empire had left the Confederation because the advantages they got from it far, far outstripped the obligations it placed on them. An empire like the Kirri got desperately needed access to infrastructure, jobs for its people, opportunities to expand, and military protection from vastly superior rivals.

And what was best? He no longer had to deal with _fucking_ Anivan in council.

The Prakarikai were already regretting leaving, and how they left even more. As Jason expected, the first thing they did was start pestering the Jun, trying to provoke them into an incident that they could use to declare war, confident they had the military might to prevent the Jun from exterminating the Prakarikai to the last man, woman, and child. But that idea got axed in a fucking _hurry_ when they found out that the Jun had signed mutual protection pacts with the Grimja, the Morbods, the Ujjo, and the Farguut, who were all empires in the Grimja sector that completely surrounded the Prakarikai, and had more than enough combined firepower to blow them into an alternate universe. They found out the next day that _every empire in the sector cluster_ had signed that same agreement except for them, meaning they'd be up against 43 different empires if they attacked the Jun, including military powerhouses like the Imperium, the two Skaa empires, the Haumda, and the Verutans. After that shocking revelation, the Prakarikai decided to go find someone else to annoy by sending out scouts to explore the rest of the S quadrant.

It was a dark day in the Royal Palace on Prakarika when they found out about that mutual protection pact, Jason had learned, and that just tickled him pink.

And the Jun couldn't have been happier. Quord told him that they'd never felt so safe and secure, and what was more, so _included_ The rest of the sector cluster would honor their desire to be left alone, but would also not tolerate _anyone_ harassing them. The Jun would be free to simply _live_, without fear and without worry, which was all they wanted.

It got no better for the Prakarikai after finding out about the pact. They found their tentative overtures for trade agreements rebuffed, almost at every turn, and what was worse for them, their existing trade agreements dried up in a matter of days because their former trade partners could get better deals through their allies in the Confederation. In just twenty days, the Prakarikai economy was in marked decline, mainly because their primary trade staple, food, was no longer in demand.

It was almost as if Anivan and Anivor had not even remotely thought their decision through to make such simple, basic mistakes, as if they were so blinded by the might of their new military that it made them forget that a military did very little for them if its soldiers had nowhere to spend their pay and their citizens were rioting in the streets because they lost their jobs.

That, Jason _did not_ want to see. An empire with a strong military but a bad economy was just a powder keg waiting to explode, because it incited its rulers to go to war just to stimulate their economies and give their angry citizens something else to occupy their time. He had to step in at that point, convincing Brayrak, Holikk, and a few others outside the Confederation to bolster the Prakarikai economy to keep them from imploding. And by that time, the Prakarikai were willing to make a fair deal, because they needed the trade.

Further from home, everyone was settling in to the new normal very well. The members of the Confederation were keeping in touch with former members, there was a lot of trade going back and forth between current and former members, and for the most part, everything was amicable…of course, everyone having the same military technology had a lot to do with that. Jason had once said that if the defenders had overwhelming advantage in war that it would dissuade anyone from attacking them, and his theory seemed to be panning out. Nobody wanted to declare war on a former Confederation member—except the Prakarikai, because they didn't care how many people died so long as they won—because of the prospect of losing vast numbers of ships and soldiers in the attempt. Everyone may have the same weapons and armor, but the kicker was, powerful Confederation weaponry could be easily mounted on orbital platforms in massive numbers to create a wall of pure firepower that would make landing on that planet a nasty, nasty proposition. They'd seen just how devastating that tactic could be with the Karinnes and the Skaa, the Karinnes with their orbital platforms and drones and the Skaa with their picket ships, a tactic so effective that virtually every empire in the Confederation had copied it. That act turned every planet, moon, and station into a fortress bristling with insane amounts of firepower that would dissuade just about anyone from attacking them.

In all, Jason felt that things were going to be just fine as he read the final separation report. He felt like a great weight had been lifted from his shoulders, and for the first time in a long time, he had some sincere hope in seeing a long, long stretch of _peace_. He doubted things would stay quiet for centuries, but he could see one or two decades of peace and quiet on the horizon, and he couldn't be happier about it. All they had to do was keeping the _fucking_ Prakarikai in check, and he'd have a nice stretch of boring old peace on his calendar for the foreseeable future.

But, that didn't mean that he didn't have a ton of work ahead of him. That calendar full of peace was going to be filled with tons of other stuff, from exploring other galaxies to keeping an eye on the Syndicate and the Prakarikai. The Confederation was too powerful for anyone in the galaxy to mess with them, but there was always going to be the problem of other wars starting, particularly as former Confederation members started exploring the galaxy without the constraints Jason had placed on them and started messing with the civilizations they found out there.

And in that respect, Jason felt a tremendous amount of responsibility. He'd armed them with the technology they were going to use to make war on others, and there was very little he could do about it. Giving them that tech had been absolutely necessary for the basic survival of the galaxy as a whole, but now, with the Syndicate dealt with, those empires could use that technology as _they_ saw fit…and not every empire in the galaxy was as devoted to peace as the Karinnes. Even within the Confederation, there would be little he could do if, say, the Verutans stumbled across an undiscovered civilization in the R quadrant and decided to annex them. There wasn't anything in the Articles that could stop them, because they weren't using Stargates or catapults to do it, they were using their own real-time jump engines to get out there. The Articles gave the Confederation no power over its members outside of the agreements that Jason forced out of them in return for getting access to the technology the Karinnes provided. And if they didn't use that technology to do what Jason didn't want them to do, then Jason's hands were tied.

The first time it happened—and it _would_ happen—Jason would feel no small measure of guilt over the suffering of that civilization. All he could do was his best to make sure that things didn't get out of control.

As far as the home front went, Karis was shifting into the next phase of Jason's plan. Kosigi was now completely clear of foreign dock workers, the last ships and crews having been shipped out this morning, and that meant that Kosigi could now focus on expanding the Karinne Navy. Jason was holding to his plan to build a navy that could hold its own against the entire Confederation, just in case things came to a head, and they needed Kosigi to build those ships, as well as keep the size of the fleet a secret from the others. And that would be very easy inside Kosigi. They were going to start as soon as Miaari finished her extensive security sweep to clear out all the bugs and espionage devices that other empires had managed to leave inside the moon, and once she certified the moon's security, they would begin. The fleet was going to more than quintuple in size, with the main focus being on frigates and destroyers, and once those ships were built and manned and the crews trained, they'd head out to explore the galaxies in the cluster while the KES focused on galaxies beyond the cluster. But there would always be more than enough ships in the home galaxy to respond if Karis was attacked.

He could definitely feel it. He could feel that this day was the end of a major portion of his life, and the dawn of a new one. After nearly a decade of hardship, strife, conflict, and struggle, the House of Karinne had achieved a meaningful, lasting peace. It was almost like he could see his own Golden Age on the horizon, to coin the Dreamers, and he almost couldn't wait to see it.

He wondered what discoveries they would make out in the universe as they explored it. He wondered how his children would grow, he wondered how the house would fare when they no longer felt that they were being threatened by a superior force. He wondered how the other empires would react to an era of peace and economic prosperity, how it might affect them, change the attitudes of their peoples. He wondered how long the peace could last.

He wondered.

And he hoped.

He closed the hologram holding the report, gave a cleansing sigh, and stroked Amber's fur as she tried to settle back down after being startled awake by another peal of thunder, an act of finality that closed the book on the Syndicate War and the partial reorganization of the Confederation. From here out, he knew, they would be walking down a much different path, and he had no idea where that path would take them. But he felt that with hard work and vigilance, it would lead somewhere good.

"That's, that, little girl," he murmured to a slightly annoyed Amber, who stood up, turned a couple of circles, then laid back down on his lap. "The last of the empires leaving the Confederation is out. We're on our own now, so to speak."

She gave an indifferent yawn, looking up at him.

"Of course you wouldn't," he chuckled. "I know one thing. I think I'm going to sleep for about three days after this," he said with a bit of a yawn of his own. "Actually, I think it's time for another visit to Tir Tairngire. After the last couple of months, I could use a couple of days just to unwind and decompress before we start our naval expansion project." He had to give a soft laugh. "I should have a little free time from now on, maybe I'll spend more of it over at 3D, driving the guys crazy."

Amber gave a malevolent little yip.

"You are such a meanie," he teased, scratching her behind her ear, making her lean into his hand. "I won't know what to do with myself. Three years, little girl, three years we've been engaged in war, or under the threat of war, or preparing for a war. Sometimes it feels like it's been ten years, a hundred years, since I woke up and didn't have to worry about someone dying, to dread turning on my panel at what message might be there waiting for me. When I wake up in the morning, I won't feel like the galaxy might fall apart if I make the wrong decision. I could use a good twenty years of nothing happening whatsoever."

She looked up at him, blinking slowly.

"Well thank you, little miss sunshine," he said darkly, which made her give an amused little squeaking growl. "I really don't see what might happen…but I'd better watch what I say, or karma will make sure I find out. I'll take my nice boring expansion project and the exploration missions and I'll be happy with them, thank you very much."

She put her chin on his leg, her two tails swishing in a hypnotic spiral pattern.

"Me too. And I hate to disturb you, sweetie, but I'm done here. And I'm going to bed. I'm going to be very busy tomorrow."

She gave a yip as he picked her up and stood up, then turned off the panel deliberately.

"I guess so, though Rann's gonna wonder what happened to you. I do not see what you get out of sleeping under the covers. And I don't think I'd understand if you told me. It's gotta be a vulpar thing."


End file.
